Jalandhar, November 2
As many as 90 of the 220 women inmates of Modern Jail, Kapurthala, today participated in the Karva Chauth celebrations.

The women had got bright suits from their homes, which they wore today and applied "henna" on their hands as a part of the ritual. The jail authorities made a special provision for them for the exchange of "thalis" and "katha" in a temple in the evening, following which tea was served to them.

“Even as it was a day only for the convicts to meet their families, it remained an open meeting day for everyone today as visitors came to provide items related to fast to women inmates. The women were also allowed to meet their husbands late in the evening from 8 pm to 9.30 pm as per the special orders issued on the matter by Jails Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur and DGP, Jails, R.P. Meena,” said Jail Superintendent S.P. Khanna.

As the moon appeared, the women were allowed to perform a ceremony and end the fast. While men were allowed to bring in "thalis" of home-cooked food, arrangements were also made by the jail authorities to provide them special "bhojan thalis".

Jalandhar, November 2
With just 11 days to go for the festival of lights, the Municipal Corporation (MC) authorities have plans to illuminate certain lanes of the city, which are devoid of streetlight facility.

For the same reason, the MC has called tenders for installing about 600 streetlight points. As per the plan, each of the 60 wards would get just about 10 new points, which would come about at the discretion of the area councillor.

But the decision seems to have come up a little late as the officials are little apprehensive as to whether the plan would mature before Divali. “We have called tenders. Let’s see how the response is. Accordingly, we will ask the councillors to list out their priorities or else there could be some disappointment,” said Superintending Engineer (O&M) P.S. Jaggi.

Even the councillors are really not excited about the same. Sudesh Rani, councillor of Ward 9, was seen today expressing her grouse with Mayor Sunil Jyoti, “There are many lanes in my colony where there is a requirement for streetlights. With just about a few points in the kitty of each councillor, we all would rather be in a quandary as to which one or two lanes to choose and which one not.”

Congress councillors, on the other hand, have ridiculed the scheme terming it a mere eyewash. Aruna Arora, a second-time councillor, says, “Financial crisis actually seems to be taking over the MC. We had been cribbing when we got just about 20 new points last year. This time the number has been further reduced to just a half.”

Jalandhar, November 2
Getting C-forms has become a pain in the neck for the city traders, who are often seen jostling with one another to get the copies of the same from the sales tax offices concerned.

Since the Punjab Government is yet to make the system for the purpose online like Chandigarh and a few other states, the businessmen have to spend one full day to run around office superintendents, ETOs and distribution counter to get copies of the same by the evening.

Mad rush is being observed in the sales tax office at BMC Chowk for the past three days with hundreds of businessmen or their employees standing for three to four hours waiting for their turn to get the sanctioned number of forms.

“Even worse is that we do not get the requisite number of forms that we demand despite spending so much time and energy. At times when we reach the distribution window, there are no forms left leaving us completely helpless,” complained Taranpreet Singh, a city-based trader.

There is no queue or token number or even any seating arrangement for those waiting at the window. It is in a narrow corridor that the applicants vie with one another for their turn to deposit their application. The ordeal just does not end there. After all this struggle, there is an endless wait that they have to bear in anticipation of a call from the room in their name.

“It is high time that the department makes things convenient for us. It is sheer harassment for no fault of ours”, said Shivam, another businessman.

The officials, on the other hand, claim that since the forms are supplied in much lower numbers than are in demand, they, too, cannot be of much help. Wilson, Excise and Taxation Officer, said the department was already trying to streamline the system. “We are in the process,” he replied.

Jalandhar, November 2
Even two days after the gas leak that led to four women falling ill in Wariana village, the district administration is yet to find the cause of the incident.

The Deputy Director, Factories, Parmal Singh, said he had today consulted Civil Surgeon Dr R.L. Bassan on the kind of symptoms that the patients showed so as to conclude on what gas it could be.

The official said since he also held an additional charge at Amritsar, he could not visit the spot on Wednesday night when the incident occurred. “I, however, checked the premises of the cold storage the next morning, but could find no signs of gas leakage. The cooling was perfect, which would have been a problem in the event of a gas leakage,” he said, adding that he was still unable to figure out as to what led to the incident.

Jalandhar, November 2
The Vigilance Department today held a function at Red Cross Bhawan to mark Vigilance Awareness Week.

Students of various schools and colleges participated in the function pledging to fight corruption through group songs, plays and speeches.

The SSP, Vigilance, Jalandhar Range, Rupinder Singh, addressed the participants saying that a web portal had been started to receive complaints online. He added that a toll-free number service was also being introduced. He added that to make the phone numbers of officials of the department public, hoardings depicting the details were being put up across the city.

Lally Infosys, a regional centre of PTU, also participated in the "Campaign against corruption" of the Vigilance Department. After a seminar, a rally was organised by students of Lally Infosys from Red Cross Bhawan to BMC Chowk against corruption. After the rally the team of Lally Infosys started a signature campaign against corruption, in which they took oath from people that they will not indulge in corruption in any way.

Jalandhar, November 2
Refuting the allegations of Arunjit Singh Sodhi, the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) today termed his statements as hollow rhetoric.

In a meeting of the party central committee and district president it was said that he was levelling accusations due to his ouster from the party.

District president of the PPP Dr Navjot Dahia said having received some serious complaints against Sodhi, party president Manpreet Singh Badal had asked him not to come to the party office 15 days ago.

He said Manpreet Badal had found him active in some anti-party activities, which were causing loss to the party.

Dahia said since Sodhi was an old worker of the party, it had been decided by senior party leaders not to make the accusations against him public.

Dasia said the messages sent by him to the party president alone were proof enough of his anti-party activities.

He said it was ironic that Sodhi had himself sent a letter to NRIs, informing them that the PPP would never accept money or donations from them since collecting party fund from abroad was against Indian laws, and the same Sodhi was now issuing statements contradicting his own letter.

He added that Sodhi was seen travelling in the car of the same Charanjit Singh Brar against whom he was issuing statements a week ago.

Party leaders said Manpreet Badal was an honest man, who had been spending from his own pocket for the party.

Apart from Dr Navjot Dahia, Rajinder Singh Johal, Kuldip Cheema, Satpal, Santokh Bassi, Raj Kumar Raju and Paramjit Bharti were present.

Jalandhar, November 2
The Combined Annual Training Camp (CATC), being conducted by 2nd Punjab Battalion, NCC, in Jalandhar Cantonment from October 24, concluded today.

A colourful cultural programme was presented by NCC cadets. The camp report was given by Camp Adjutant Major J.S. Rana. Lt-Col Raobinder Singh addressed the cadets and distributed prizes among those who had excelled in public speaking, drill, guard of honour, volleyball, badminton, tug of war, 100-m race, three-legged race and lemon race. Overall trophies were also given on the basis of performance and discipline.

A demonstrative lecture on adoption of traffic sense and proper following of traffic rules by cadets was done by Inspector Vijay Kumar and his team of traffic police.

Surinder Saini of the Jalandhar Welfare Society gave a motivational lecture to NCC cadets for making Punjab drug-free and eradicating social evils like female foeticide from the society.

Jalandhar, November 2
On a special visit to Punjab and Haryana, Rwanda’s Ambassador Williams Nkurunziza visited Lovely Professional University (LPU) last evening.

On reaching LPU, the Ambassador, who was accompanied by second counsellor Mucyo Rutishisha, was welcomed by LPU Vice-Chancellor Dr Ramesh Kanwar for valuable discourse.

As part of the visit, Williams Nkurunziza met more than 200 Rwandan students, who are getting education at the university under different study programmes like computer applications/information technology, computer science, business, economics, pharmacy etc.

The Ambassador also enjoyed an opportunity to visit the nine-storeyed central library, student resource centre, hostels and laboratories of the university.